Visa Letting People Send Money By Credit Card Could Be Boon For Scammers

Visa is launching a new service that will let people send each other money from their Visa or bank account to each other’s Visa debit, credit or prepaid card, as we noted yesterday. But while this will open up new vistas of convenience, and offer a way for people who are sick of scammers exploiting Paypal’s refund system to conduct transactions, I would at the same time expect to see new kinds of advance fee fraud using the service.

Basically take all the scams that we already see and just swap out Visa pay by credit card instead of Western Union and checks. Someone offers to buy your laptop on eBay and then sends you extra money so that you can mail it through their “shipping agent” and gives you a little extra to keep for your trouble. They want you to send the money by Visa pay by credit card, then a few days later the money in your account bounces. Oopsies.

However, unlike Western Union, presumably the Visa cards will be attached to an actual identity. While that still can be faked or stolen, that’s harder to fake than a Western Union pickup where all they need is the right number and the money can be picked up anywhere in the world by whomever, without chance for refund or canceled Payment.